The present disclosure relates to an actuating member for making a medical elongate member perform a predetermined action, and a medical device equipped with the actuating member.
In the medical field, a flexible elongate member is generally used as a medical device for performing administration of medicine into a living body, suction or injection of various fluids, introduction of other medical devices into the living body, or the like. For example, where an elongate member is used for the introduction of other medical devices, prior to the introduction of the medical device, the elongate member is inserted into a lumen (a blood vessel, a body cavity, or the like) of the living body, and is guided to a target area, such as an area to be treated and its peripheral area. In order to appropriately guide the elongate member to the target area during such use, it is often necessary to introduce the elongate member along a curved path like the lumen of the living body. For this reason, the elongate member may include an actuating member capable of performing an arbitrary bending operation by a user's proximal operation when the elongate member is used.
As to techniques related to this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-142199 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) describes an actuating member, which includes a push/pull member connected to an elongate member, a pulley around which the push/pull member is wound and a handle for rotationally actuating the pulley, and an endoscope into which the actuating member is assembled. In this actuating member, the handle is arranged on a proximal side of the endoscope and rotates around an axis orthogonal to the axial direction of the elongate member, thereby winding the push/pull member to perform a bending operation.